Print

Print


On Dec 19, 2014, at 9:48 AM, Eric Lease Morgan wrote:

> I don’t know about y’all, but it seems to me that things like linked data and open access are larger trends in Europe than here in the United States. Is there are larger commitment to sharing in Europe when compared to the United States? If so, is this a factor based on the nonexistence of a national library in the United States? Is this your perception too? —Eric Morgan


I can't comment on the linked data side of things so much, but in following all of the comments from the US's push for opening up access to federally funded research, I'd have to say that capitalism and protectionist attitudes from 'publishers' seem to be a major factor in the fight against open access.

I've placed 'publishers' in quotes, because groups that I would've considered to have been 'scientific societies' submitted comments against the opening up of the research, and in the case of AGU, referred to themselves multiple times as a 'publisher' and never as a 'society'.[1]  I dropped my membership when I realized that.


Statements from the 2011 RFI from OSTP:

	http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/ostp/library/publicaccess


Statements from the 2013 NAS meetings:

	http://sites.nationalacademies.org/DBASSE/CurrentProjects/DBASSE_082378

(note that I made statements at the National Academies meeting on opening access to federally funded research data)



[1] http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/scholarly-pubs-(%23065).pdf

-Joe



ps. I still haven't seen what any of the official policies are (last year's government shutdown delayed the white house response to their submissions, and I have no idea if they've finally publicized anything) ... but I hosted a session at the AGU last year, where we had representatives from NOAA, NASA and USGS speak about what they were doing, and the NASA policy seemed to be heavily influenced by the more senior scientists ... who were more likely to be editors of journals.  They haven't updated their 'Data & Information Policy' (http://science.nasa.gov/earth-science/earth-science-data/data-information-policy/) page in over three years.